A Plentitude of Gratitude

Where should I start? Hosting the WTS International Conference in Los Angeles? The extraordinary number of programs and events we’ve celebrated? The growth and expansion of WTS-LA and our influence in Southern California transportation? Or perhaps we should focus on the future, where we have a stunning array of programs and events planned. It’s a great problem to have. So, here goes.

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First, and with great joy and sincerity, I must give thanks. As you all know, WTS-LA proudly hosted the WTS International Annual Conference this year. It took a legion of passionate, thoughtful, and skillful people to bring it all together, and I would like to call out a few more specifically. WTS-LA’s Conference Co-Chairs Metro Transportation Planning Senior Manager Rashanda Davis and HNTB Project Director Heather Anderson deserve special acknowledgement for their outstanding work in leading the conference and delivering a successful event. I also want to express my heartfelt gratitude to all of the volunteers that supported the conference with their time, energy, and ingenuity. This year, the conference welcomed 1,300 attendees — a record number! — in Los Angeles and it took a massive degree of vision, planning, legwork, and determination to deliver a conference of this caliber. My thanks don’t end here.

To the attendees, presenters, panelists, tour guides, sponsors, donors, and top transportation leaders who all came together to take this conference to the next level, I warmly thank you for your individual and collective contribution. Finally, to the army of tireless WTS-LA members and other workers who banded together to handle everything from creating logos and flyers to staffing the check-in tables and guiding attendees, thank you, as the conference could not have happened or been so successful without your selfless dedication and commitment to WTS and what it stands for. Again, to all of you I owe my deepest and sincerest thanks.

Using the success of the conference as a springboard, let’s look forward to upcoming events within the chapter. To start, I’d like to announce that the application period is open for WTS-LA Awards and Recognitions. We are calling for nominations for WTS-LA Woman of the Year, Honorable Ray LaHood Award, Employer of the Year, Innovative Transportation Solutions Award, and Rosa Parks Diversity Leadership Award. So, please submit nominations for deserving professionals for these esteemed awards. In addition, we’re also looking for scholarship sponsors for the WTS-LA Scholarship Program. Last year, we awarded more than $100,000 in scholarships to deserving young women for the seventh year in a row. Let’s break the record this year and help foster the next generation of transportation professionals. As always, we will see the results of these efforts at the WTS-LA Annual Scholarships and Awards Gala, which will be held on November 19th at the InterContinental Hotel.

Looking to the near future, we have some outstanding programs planned for the summer and fall. For example, on June 24th, we will welcome Metro Chief Planning Officer Ray Sosa. July will bring our annual TopGolf Scholarship Fundraiser, and a panel luncheon with airport executives. On September 24th, the Programs committee will present a Women in Rail panel, and we have a very special program in October that we will disclose soon. So, as you can see, we have quite a lineup planned to deliver the best transportation programming in the nation. And that leads directly to my next thought.

I didn’t know where to start, so I began by describing the superlative WTS International Annual Conference and the absolutely wonderful, insightful, timely, and compelling programming that we’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy. We are fortunate in the extreme to be able to not only participate, but to also help design events and programs that enhance our professional careers, as well as our lives. For this, I am sincerely grateful. I thank you all for the honor and privilege of being your president and I look forward to working together with you all to make this spring, summer, and fall as dynamic and fulfilling as the past few months have been.